Vedanta Resources and other commodity companies led the market higher as the first day of the new quarter got off to a bright start.

Vedanta rose 127p to £14.15 after news that it planned to increase its share buy- back programme by 40% to $350m. The mining sector had already been strong as better than expected manufacturing surveys across the globe, especially from China and the US, pushed metal prices higher on hopes for increased demand. Oil was also stronger, after US inventories fell by more than forecast, the dollar weakened and there was also disruption following attacks in Nigeria.

So Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation ended 40p better at 694.5p, Antofagasta added 37p to 624.5p and Xstrata climbed 35.9p to 693.2p. Among the oil companies, BP was 12.2p better at 490p after it won a key Iraqi contract while Royal Dutch Shell A shares rose 37p to £15.55. With Wall Street up more than 100 points by the time London closed, the FTSE 100 finished 91.50 points higher at 4340.71.

International Power surged 15.75p to 253.75p after it sold its Czech business for £738m, including debt. The long-awaited disposal – to investment firm J&T Group – will give International Power a £380m profit on the deal, and prompted a positive recommendation from Charles Stanley.

Marks & Spencer moved ahead 11.5p to 317.5p in the wake of better than feared first quarter figures. The news helped rival Next add 57p to £15.26. But BAE Systems dipped 1.25p to 337.25p as it missed out on a $1.1bn contract to build 2,244 armoured trucks for use by US troops in Afghanistan. The order was won by US group Oshkosh Corporation.

Lloyds Banking Group lost 1.68p to 68.25p in the wake of noises from the European Union about possible asset sales due to it receiving state aid. A downgrade from Credit Suisse, which has cut its price target from 55p to 50p, did not help. Hedge fund group Man dropped 15.5p to 263p, after the company's shares went ex-dividend, while Homeserve, the home insurance business, was hit by a downgrade from analysts at UBS who cut their rating from buy to neutral. It shares fell 58p to £14.42. Finally Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings, down 0.5p to 321p, is expected to announce a new application for its key analyser, IDS iSYS, in addition to its successful Vitamin D test. IDH is set to unveil a bone formation marker product.